Welcome to Ms. Smith's Third Grade!

Studies show that the more students read, the better readers and writers they become.  But what can you do to motivate your child to read more regularly?

As a parent, you know that reading is important, and you probably feel frustrated if your child doesn't like to read. Many forces in children's lives pull them away from reading — television, video games, and after-school activities — but finding a way to incorporate reading and writing activities into your child's daily routine may not be as difficult as it seems. Try the following:

• Learn more about your child's interests and suggest books, magazines, and articles that relate to those topics.
• Sometimes good movies are a starting point for pleasure reading — after seeing a movie based on a book, children will be motivated to read the book.
• Sometimes travel sparks reading, and finding books that relate to a place you visit on a family vacation can get a child hooked.
• Keeps books and other reading materials at home.
• Read books with your children! Children of any age can appreciate being read to.
• Be a good role model — let your children see you reading.
• Try a hands on activity. There are many activities that tie in literacy themes. (Try RIF's activity search for ideas.)
  

(from 'Reading is Fundamental.' Find more articles and activities here.)

Have you heard about CROPQV but aren't sure of what it means? Here's the scoop!

CROPQV is a simple acronym that helps us to remember the higher-level thinking skills that the students should strive for in reading. These skills are observed when a student can derive a thoughtful and logical response from a piece of text. The responses are not directly repeated from or found in the text, but the student's response must refer back to the text and serve as support for their response.

Connections - able to use current text and refer back to other texts (text-to-text), direct experiences (text-to-self), or other's experiences (text-to-world). Usually starts with, "This part reminds me of ..."

Reactions - describes a personal response to particular part or event in the story. Relays and expresses personal feelings. Usually starts with, "I was surprised/happy/afraid that ... because...)

Opinions - states an opinion about a character's action/decision, whether or not s/he liked the book AND why, and who s/he would recommend the book to. Usually starts with "I think that...because..."

Predictions - tells what the student thinks might happen AND why. Usually starts with, "I predict that... because...)

Questions - asks thoughtful questions about a character's actions, feelings, etc., or an author's craft, purpose, etc. Usually starts with, "I wonder why ..."

Visualizations - able to visualize and see the describe event/character in their minds as if they are watching a movie. Usually starts with, "I can imagine ..."

The students practice showing me these skills daily, and write a letter to me using CROPQV weekly in their readers' response journals. I then read the letters and respond back to them quickly (within a day), encouraging them to challenge themselves further in their thinking by affirming their thoughts, asking deeper questions, and making book recommendations.

Encourage your child to practice these skills everywhere - at home, in the car, at the supermarket - with a variety of texts. You can download a CROPQV template from out site. You need Acrobat Reader to download and view this document.

In an effort to provide flexibility and choices while continuing to challenge our third graders, students will use Spelling BINGO to complete their weekly spelling activities. Students can choose to complete any 4 activities on the BINGO sheet for homework  at their (and your) convenience, and all activities are due by Friday morning.